majiponi for Dominion | | I find this card incredibly unlikely to ever have been printed. Dominion doesn't group the game into larger "sets" of games. That's an aspect of tournament organization not Dominion. Design principles aside, let's imagine a world in which the original rules of Dominion said: play 3 rounds, whoever has the most points wins (basically this landmark is part of the game). I believe that would be a bad choice. Right now, when someone is pummeling the other player with vicious attacks, there's an incentive to end the game and win already. But now, someone has a major incentive to keep playing a string of ghost ships, Sea Hags, Haunted Woods, and monuments forever in order to win. Do you see how this design would incentivize less fun games? The case where this landmark works well is super close games. Now I feel a little better about getting super close because my points help me later... but that isn't so fun. Now in the next game I can't do a fun and clever 3-pile because winning by a large margin is more important, this takes away strategic decisions and again makes the game less fun. I can't think of anyway to implement this in a way that wouldn't take away from some of the strengths of Dominion. I know that you said you like the ways that this changes the game, I guess you can take this as just one person's opinion on this, just because I am averse to it doesn't mean other people are. I'm sure other people would enjoy this as well, it's just not for me. |
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fika monster for Guilds |
way of the hamster +1 coffer
| For guilds it fits in with coffers. This is a pretty simple way for Coffers. Compared to other Ways it is "balanced." I don't have much to say about this. It doesn't add a lot of strategic depth -- if you have leftover terminals and you don't need the money this turn you get a Coffer.
I came back after making my judgement results to say. I know it's disappointing to get a card the judge has no critical feedback on and it still doesn't make the top 5. So I wanted to take some time to just explain my opinion. This is a simple card that would absolutely fit in with Dominion. Sometimes simple cards are personally interesting, and sometimes they aren't. For whatever reason, this one isn't so interesting to me. But please don't take that as an indication that this is bad design. I think it's fine and good and applaud your ability to find something simple that is balanced. |
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Xen3k for Dark Ages
This is in the top 5 |
Way of the Vermin Way Trash this. Each other player gains a Ruins. If this is the first Action card played this turn, gain a Spoils. | Great add to Dark Ages. With all the on-trash benefits with dark ages, it's lovely to turn each card into self trash. I think having a self-trash would be a good "Way", even if there was no benefit attached to it. I don't love turning every card into an Attack that can't be blocked is very good, but the good news is in games with Way of the Vermin, each ruin you get you can self-trash and attack your opponents. And, if their turn was rotten, they can gain a spoils for the effort. This really combos with tons of the cards in Dark Ages and works really well. It's a little "strong" for a way, but it's fine for it to be strong since everyone has equal access to it. Even Big Money even gets access to it because they get ruins to use as Vermin
I really love this Way, and when whittling down from the top 5, I took a second pass at the judgement here, and I think there's a big problem here. Necropolis means that everyone will start their second shuffle with (#players -1) ruins in their deck. That's pretty aggressive and a slow start to the game. And, even though those ruins are-self trashing, they take actions so players can't play their actions and just slow the game down more and more, passing out spoils which prevent the actions from being played more. It also means that shuffle luck on the second shuffle can really effect the game. I collide my Armory with my ruins. You draw your ruin by itself with two coppers, essentially being able to "pay $2" for thinning your ruin, attacking me, and getting a spoils. I think you could add a "non-shelter" clause to it and it would solve most of these tempo issues. |
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silverspawn for Cornucopia |
| This was submitted for Cornucopia, but it doesn't have anything to do with any of the sub-themes. The posit that Cornucopia is about engines isn't really true, definitely not significantly more than any expansion. Menagerie doesn't even have terminal draw (other than Followers), which would be the power of Troubadours. So this doesn't fit in that expansion at all. I really don't think Donald X would have ever put this in Cornucopia. It would fit a little better in Adventures since Champion sets the precedent for +1 Action. All that aside, the mechanic of one time having a super great turn is interesting. I feel like this is more likely going to get used to save a turn -- which I think is a great design space. It really sucks to get behind because all your villages are at the bottom of your deck. Cards like this help offset those un-fun situations. Nice. No real suggestions. |
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LordBaphomet for Empires | | The idea of a project boosting Victory cards is really cool! I just don't think this is priced correctly. If I pay 7, I probably could have gotten a province instead. Sure, it doesn't bloat my deck, but it's pretty close to that. If I do that and we split provinces 5/3 I lose. If we do provinces 4/4 and the other person gets an Extra duchy and estate (instead of buying this event), it's tied. So in many games this isn't really quite strong enough to be worth while. I think this card becomes more interesting if it counts victory cards costing 5 or more, and then you can cost it even higher, (not sure... 10 debt?) and enable alternate paths towards victory. This would make it a little similar to silk roads but I think that's fine. |
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Carline for Seaside
This is in the top 5 | | As someone pointed out, this is basically Haven where you have no choice but to haven the top card of your deck. So, it's strictly worse than Haven. But Ways aren't evaluated in the same way cards are, the fact and Action cna do this Dolphin makes it very useful. With terminal collision you just Dolphin one of the cards to start your next hand with 6 cards. Also top of the deck combos with tons of other cards in Seaside since top-of-the-deck is a very prevalent sub theme, so there's many times that you know what that top card is (Pirate Ship, Lookout, Pearl Diver, Sea Hag, Ghost Ship) which makes this even more useful. Nice work designing a Way that really fits into seaside. This seems fun and interesting and appropriately balanced for a Way. The only point of criticism here is that it makes Haven a lot less appealing. But still, Haven's flexibility in what card you set aside means there are still games where I buy Haven even when Way of the Dolphin is possible. |
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pubby for Intrigue |
| I think this fits in with Intrigue by incentivizing Victory Cards, what with all the fun Victory Cards Intrigue adds. The problem is that all those cards are properly balanced with their action/treasure and the victory points they provide. Once you add two more VP to them, they become over-powered. Even without alt-vp, this changes up the game dramatically -- Provinces no longer seem that important when two duchies are worth a lot more. For my money, the more interesting Landmarks are one that open up different avenues of play, not ones that are so powerful you have to go for them. The additional 2VP per victory card is a little too game warping. I think this card becomes a lot more subtle and interesting if it was 1VP instead. Someone else mentioned this is a less interesting form of battlefield. It no longer matters when you buy the victory cards. |
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spineflu for Adventures |
Salvage Yard • $5 • Event Gain a Treasure costing up to $6. Each other player gains a copy of it and takes Over Encumbered if they don't have it already Over Encumbered • State At the start of your turn, you may return this for -1 Action; if you don't, take your -1 Card token. | I first wanted to analyze Over Encumbered. -1 Action is really bad at the start of the turn, that's a devastating punish to Engines. And there's no counter for this in Adventures. Even Champion requires you to first play a card. And because this isn't an Attack, Champion doesn't protect against it. So this is pretty oppressive. Even if they don't take the -1 Action ever, then they start every turn with their -1 card token, which is a SUPER strong attack. Notice the only way to give -1 card tokens to other players is $5 event. So, I think the attack here is way too strong and it's especially disabling towards Engines. Clever design where the benefit of buying Salvage Yard is weak (similar to how IGG works) and especially weak for the engine. So this is an Event that is Big Money's solution to fighting Engines. Except, this costs a buy, which Big Money doesn't normally have a surplus of, so it's hard to justify buying this over a Gold, especially if you're racing before the Engine activates. I'll point out one final thing about the event -- it's political. If a player has finally bitten the -1 Action bullet, and another player hasn't... should I buy Salvage Yard? A political decision. I think the attack is interesting, I'd recommend looking into ways to make it counter-able and perhaps a little weaker (only attacks when the Journey token is a certain way, and/or the -1 Action happens after the first Action you play) |
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aquila for Empires
This is in the top 5 | Way of the Eagle - Way If you haven't trashed a copy of this during this turn, trash this. If you do, +1VP per 2 copies of it in the Supply (round up). | Just having the ability to self-trash is interesting when there's on-trash abilities. Unfortunately, Empires has no on-trash benefits for Action cards. So, that aspect of the card isn't so interesting in the context of Empires. I like the "if you haven't trashed a copy of this during this turn" clause. It's a clever way to limit its strength. I like the fact that this encourages you to trash cards earlier in the game for higher VP, nice! Near the endgame you're happy to grab a scout as a Distant Lands. This is a good point for me to bring this up ... this card is basically Distant Lands early on (funnily enough the first Distant Lands itself in a 3 player game is now worth more points trashed than on the Tavern Mat). I also like the idea that you can turn early cards (trashers) into VP. There's something so appealing about cannibalizing your deck for more Victory Points. I can't think of any ways to improve this. It fits into Empires with the carrying about supply piles and the VPs. |
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Timinou for Alchemy |
| Basically, every potion is now 2.5 points. at $4 this is basically balanced. It's a little strong Victory Points wise, but basically works. How often do you buy a Cemetery just for the points? Rarely. And imagine you have two potions, towards the end of the game it's a big risk to buy a single potion because you have to get a pair to get any points. This risk is interesting, but it's just not enough points to be worth that risk often, so not so interesting. This is most interesting in Alchemy where you already have one potion, and then you buy a second one at the end of the game for a whopping 5 Victory points. Outlining all of these cases, I'm not convinced this is so interesting. It pushes me slightly towards buying a potion in the first place, but the whole point of Potion-costing cards is they are strong enough to be worth buying a potion for if they exist anyway, even without VP. So, I don't think this Landmark has a huge impact in the game and does not open up a ton of interesting possibilities. |
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D782802859 for Intrigue |
| I'm disappointed you didn't update Bounty to clarify the questions I had about this card. It's tough to evaluate because there's so much ambiguity about the card. A way of making it less ambiguous would be to say "You may discard Victory cards at the start of your Buy phase for +$2 each." It's a shame because this state is really cool and adds a lot to intrigue. Unfortunately Assassin is political. Do I choose to discard a Victory card or not so you get Bounty? I hope you keep iterating on this concept because Bounty is a really interesting state. With the ambiguity and the political-nature of this card, I can't see it ever being printed in Intrigue. I really hope you iterate on this card because Bounty is so interesting and a version of this concept definitely could have won the contest.
To reiterate my questions in case you didn't see them: "How does Bounty work with Action-Victory cards? With Bounty, when you play Dame Josephine on your Treasure phase, do you get +2$ and you attack other players? Do you choose one of those options, but you are allowed to choose either while playing in your treasure phase? Same questions apply for all the action-victory cards. Another question -- Pasture is currently a treasure worth $1. Bounty says also so does that mean Pasture is worth $1 and worth $2? Is it now a gold?" |
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mandioca15 for Dominion | credit to fika monster for making the image
| This is essentially a less interesting version of Tomb. I prefer the way Money Lender instructs new players: they play to get that big $3 (not realizing it only adds $2) and then they discover the benefit of coppers being gone. I don't have much more to say. I do appreciate its simplicity. If Tomb wasn't in the game, I could see this existing. But Tomb exists. |
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grep for Cornucopia |
Way of the Silkworm If you don't have other copies of this in play, +1 Action, +1 Card, +$1
| First of all, +1 Card always occurs before +1 Action when there are non-conditional bonuses. Keep this in mind because I read this as +1 Action +1 Buy +$1 because that's the normal order. Obviously this fits in with Cornucopia for the variety it encourages. Turning any card into a Peddler is nice. The thing is, this expansion already has Tournament which is a more interesting Peddler. And it causes a ton of AP as you try to figure out, on each first play of a card, should I draw one more card or should I use the normal function of the action? I think that games with the Way of the Silkworm will be slower, and less fun because of that. I like the concept, but I think the Vanilla bonuses could be better. I wonder if you made it stronger, then maybe the choice is more obvious and it leads to less AP and makes it more fun. If it were a Lab, that would encourage strong variety because you would love to have 10 cheap labs in your deck. And you'd very often immediately choose to make the first play of each Action a lab. |
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segura for Nocturne |
| This is an attack which gives no benefit. Donald X shied away from those... except Nocturne has Skulk AND Werewolf. So this is sort of a sub-theme of Nocturne. But I do really object to making it not an Attack. Donald X. has shied away from "discard from top of your deck" that aren't even Attacks because players perceive them as attacks and are not react-able. I can't imagine something that is actually an attack without having the attack type would get by. Especially something so easily spammable. This definitely fits in Nocturne. I just think it would make it less fun to play with for many players. |
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scolapasta for Alchemy |
| Wow, neat concept, turning Potions into golds! I think you added too many benefits to this design. I think you're underestimating turning a Potion into a Goat. (It's a goat because you get to still produce $1 from the copper in play you trash). On its own, Infusion makes Potions a little too strong. Well, Potion-costing card-shaped-things need to be strong in order to justify the Potion expense. I just think you went overboard here with the +Buy. Now on my turns Potions (other than the first one) are $4-costing Golds. I just only buy Potions here, no other $ needed (except for a Copper to trash each turn with the first Potion). I think you need have to get rid of the +Buy here. Then it becomes a little more difficult to trade back Cauldron every turn, and introduces more complexity of whether to sacrifice a buy to take the Cauldron back. Also, I think the Event costing 4 that says "trash a a card you have in play for +$1 per $2 it costs (rounded down)" is roughly balanced, maybe it could work for 3. Adding a +Buy and a great Artifact on top of that and it's way over-powered, and less interesting because of that. I really applaud the design that would make me want to fill my deck with Potions, and I absolutely adore the trash-in-play aspect. I can't wait to sacrifice a hunting grounds for +$3 and a duchy. Nice work. I think this card does make Alchemy appealing, so nice work on that front! I hope you consider my thoughts around the +Buy. |
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X-tra for Hinterlands
This is in the top 5 |
| You've done it. You've design a silver+ for less than $4... who knew it would be Silver all along! This combos great with Hinterland sub-themes of silvers and on-buy/gain (by having silvers provide a gain). Most strong engines ignore silver. I love that silver-haters would have to begrudgingly load up on silvers for those non-terminal +Buys. This is simple and definitely fits in with Hinterlands. I think the price is right: you often pay $5 for a silver+ with a +Buy (Charm, Spices, and Counterfeit), so I think this works to turn all your silvers into +Buys. Nice work! |
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Gubump for Nocturnes |
| This is pretty similar to alion8me's Lunar Ritual , which won Dominion Design Contest 80. I personally like the concept far more as an Event -- you have to buy it each time, which is pretty expensive since you lose a buy and 3 money. As an event it aims to "save" a turn and can be cheaper. But this is an artifact you only buy it once and have it forever, so it's appropriately more expensive. In games where this is good (remodeler and a draw to x or a +3 cards), it's incredibly good. Those games are interesting because you essentially avoid $. I do think the clever design of removing attack cards is good so that it doesn't become super oppressive. Games where it isn't good, it's not going to be worth that high price point of $5. Let's look at Nocturne itself. The strongest payload we can get from an Action card in the Night phase is either Gold gaining (Leprechaun, Tragic Hero, boons), $4 cost gaining (boon), or getting lucky with Zombie Mason. Well, none of those are that strong at all. You can't even gain imps (which would be great to play in the night phase phase) because Tormenter is an attack (well, that's not true -- you can actually play Tormenters using Night imps). There is room for situational design, but I think it's far better to have a card that is situational, but still a decision whether to use. It sort of feels like a non-decision. Either this is good and you have to get it, or it's bad and you never do. There's no middle-ground. I think the best situational cards have ambiguous middle ground that introduce strategic complexity. I disagree with someone's proposed solution of making this cheaper. Again, in the games where it's good, it's very very good and $5 is appropriate. How to improve this design? It's difficult to do so. You'd have to add some other bonus to make it stronger in the weak-case that didn't make it stronger in the strong-case. I'm not so sure here. |
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LibraryAdventurer for Menagerie
This is in the top 5 | Cat Tower $4 - Project When you play an action card, instead of following its instructions, you may play the card set aside with this, leaving it there. - Setup: Set aside an unused action card costing $4. | I'm glad you reminded me of this submission because I really like it! So this fits in with a few themes of Menagerie -- it is a Way that you pay for, which is interesting. Then it also works with horses. Menagerie has a way to gain lots of Actions so you can play that set aside card that even costs more than horses (so might be better). I think the price is right, sometimes the $4 cost card is insanely good, at sometimes it's just okay. I don't think costing this $5 would be appropriate because now I'm a lot less likely to build a cat tower for say a Cutpurse. I think $5 is too much, and $3 doesn't make sense. I like this a lot. It's simple, but fits in with Menagerie well. Sometimes even you build a Cat tower for Spy because you want that added flexibility of non-terminallity. That's probably where Cat tower shines most, when the $4 set aside is a weak non-terminal, and those are the situations where it's most interesting to me. But the games where you have a $4 village there, well it's a little strong, but for some reason I'm okay with that strength. It's a different sort of game, and I mean, that's what all the ways do anyway. |
Originally submissions from Xen3k, silverspawn, Carline, aquila, scolapasta, X-tra, and LibraryAdventurer were all in my short-list and I had a tough time even weaning them down to top 5. But I had to do a top 5. Troubadours really didn't follow the contest to fit in with an expansion. Infusion, as much as I love it, is really hurt by the +buy in my opinion.
Way of the Vermin is not in the top-3 because of the Shelter/early ruins issue. Porcelain Supplier is also a truly wonderful Project, but it just isn't exciting enough compared to the other top 5 entries. I imagine if I judged on a different day my opinion could have reversed on Porcelain Supplier.
It only gets harder narrowing down a final between Cat Tower, Way of the Eagle, and Way of the Dolphin. All three excellent cards I can think of no way to improve. Both Cat Tower and Way of the Dolphin do things similar to what's already in those expansions, and Way of the Eagle offers net new functionality.
This is such an interesting Way. Do I trash cards early to lose tempo? I love that choice, and I'm a sucker for cards that make you re-think the "green at the end of the game" strategy. There's even really fun dynamics. Oh, my opponent just bought 2 scouts, maybe I will buy a scout to deny them 2VPs on their next turn. It opens up a lot of interesting dynamics where you have to consider what your opponent is doing. Congratulations aquila.
As always, I am impressed and feel inspired by the many wonderful designs y'all made. Judging is always difficult because of all the wonderful ideas! I am open to feedback. Do you think I terribly judged this? Did I make a horrible mistake? This is all one person's opinions. I am often wrong. Still, I am excited to hear any positive or negative reflection you have towards my judging. Looking forward to aquilla's contest!